Injurious Words

In Louisiana. Slander, or libellous words. Civ, Code La. art. 3501. INJURY (Lat. in, negative, jus, a right). A wrong or tort. Relative injuries are injuries to those rights which a person possesses in relation to the person who is immediately affected by the wrongful act done. Absolute injuries are injuries to those rights which a person possesses as being a member of society. Private injuries are infringements of the private or civil rights belonging to individuals, considered as individuals. Public injuries are breaches and violations of rights and duties which affect the whole community as a commimity. Injuries to personal property are the unlawful taking and detention thereof from the owner; and other injuries are some damage affecting the same while in the claimant's possession, or that of a third person, or injuries to his reversionary interests. Injuries to real property are ousters, trespasses, nuisances, waste, subtraction of rent, disturbance of right of way, and the like. It is obvious that the divisions overlap each other, and that the same act may be, for example, a relative, a private, and a public injury at once. For many injuries of this character, the offender may be obliged to suffer punishment for the public wrong, and to recompense the sufferer for the particular loss which he has sustained. The distinction is more commonly marked by the use of the terms civil injuries to denote private injuries, and of crimes, misdemeanors, etc., to denote the public injury done, though not always; as, for example, in case of a public nuisance which* may be also a private nuisance. In Civil Law. A delict committed in contempt or outrage of any one, whereby his body, his dignity, or his reputation is maliciously injured. Voet. Com, ad Pand, 47, tit. 10, note 1. A real injury is inflicted by any act by which a person's honor or dignity is affected; as, striking one with a cane, or even aiming a blow without striking; spitting in one's face; assuming a coat of arms, or any other mark or distinction, proper to another, etc. The composing and publishing defamatory libels may be reckoned of this kind. Ersk. Prac. 4. 4. 45. A verbal injury, when directed against a private person, consists in the uttering contumelious words, which tend to injure his character by making him littl or ridiculous. Where the offensive words are uttered in the heat of a dispute, and spoken to the person's face, the law does not presume any sion; and yet, even in that case, the truth of the injurious words seldom absolves entirely from punishment. Where the injurious expressions have a tendency to blacken one's moral character, or fix some particular guilt upon him, and are deliberately repeated in different companies, or handed about in whispers to confidants, the crime then becomes slander, agreeably to the distinction of the Roman law. Dig. 15. § 12, "De Injur."

In Louisiana. Slander, or libellous words. INJURY (Lat in, negative, jm, a right). A wrong or tort; cited in Woodruff v. Min. Co., 18 Fed. 753, 781. Any legal wrong which will give a cause of action to the one whose rights, person or property are injured thereby. Penn. R. Co. V. Merchant, 119 Pa. 561, 13 Atl. 690, 4 Am. St. Rep. 659 (as used in Pa. Constitution). Absolute injuries Ate injuries to those rights whl<fh a person possesses as being a member of society. l*rivate injuries are infringements of the private or civil rights belonging to individuals considered as individuals. Public injuries are breaches and violations of rights and duties which affect the whole community as a community. Injuries to personal property are the unlawful taking and detention thereof from the ow’ner; and other injuries are some damage affecting the same while in the claimant’s possession or that of a third person, or injuries to his reversionary interests. Injuries to real property are ousters, trespasses, nuisances, waste, subtraction of rent, disturbances of right of way, and the like. Relative injuries are Injuries to those rights which a person possesses in relation to the person who is immediately affected by the wrongful act done. It Is obvious that the divisions overlap each other, and that the same ac^ may be, for example, a relative, a private, and a public Injury at once. For many injuries of this character the offender may be obliged to suffer punishment for the public wrong and to recompense the sufferer for the particular loss which he has sustained. The distinction Is more commonly marked by the use of the terms civil injuries to denote private Injuries, and of crimes, misdemeanors, etc., to denote the public Injury done: though not always; as, for example, in case of a public nuisance which may be also a private nuisance. Injuries arise in three ways: first, by nonfeasance, or the not doing what was a legal obligation,, or duty, or contract, to perform; second, misfeasance, or the performance in an improper manner of an act which it was either the party’s duty or his contract to perform; third, malfeasance, or the unjust performance of some act which the party had no right or which he had contracted not to do. The remedies are different as the injury affects private individuals or the public. When the injuries affect a private right and a private individual, although often also affecting the public, there are three descriptions of remedies; first, the preventive, such as defence, resistance, recaption, abatement of nuisance, surety of the peace, injunction, etc.; second, remedies for compensation, peace; third, proceedings for punishment, as by Indictment, or summary proceedings before a Justice. "When the injury is such as to affect the public. It becomes a. crime, misdemeanor, or offence, and the party may be punished by Indictment, or summary conviction for the public injury, and by dvil action at the suit of the party for the private wrong. But in cases of felony the remedy by action for the private injury is generally suspended until the party particularly injured has fulfilled his duty to the public by prosecuting the offender for the public crime; and in cases of homicide the remedy is merged in the felony; 1 Chitty, Pr. 10; Ayliffe, Pand. 592. There are many injuries for which the law affords no remedy. In general, it interferes only when there has been a visible physical injury inflicted, while it leaves almost totally unprotected the whole class of the most malignant mental injuries and sufferings, unless in a few cases where, by a fiction, it supposes some pecuniary loss, and sometimes affords compensation to wounded feelings. A parent, for example, cannot sue, in that character, for an injury inflicted on his child, and when his own domestic happiness has been destroyed, unless the fact will sustain the allegation that the daughter was the servant of her father, and that by reason of such seduction he lost the benefit of her services; but the proof of loss of service has reference only to the form of the remedy. And when the action is sustained in point of form, damages may be given not only for the loss of service, but also for all that the plaintiff can feel from the nature of the injury; Phelin v. Kenderdine, 20 Pa. 354; Lavery v. Crooke, 52 Wis. 012, 9 N. W. 599, 38 Am. Rep. 768. Another instance may be mentioned. A party cannot recover damages for verbal slander in many cases: as, when the facts published are true; for the defendant would Justify, and the party injured must fail. Nor will the law piinish criminally the author of verbal slander imputing even the most Infamous crimes, unless done with intent to extort a chattel, money, or valuable thing. The law presumes, perhaps unnaturally enough, that a man is incapable of being alarmed or affected by such injuries to his feelings. See 1 Bish. Cr. L. § 591. The true and sufficient reason for these rules would seem to be the unc'ertain character of the injury inflicted, the impos.sibility of compensation, and the danger, supposing a pecuniary compensation to be attempted, that injustice would be done under the excitement of the case. The sound principle, as the experience of the law amply indicates, is to Inflict a punishment for crime, but not put up for sale, by the agency of a court of Justice, those wounded feelings which would itations, however, in particular cases; Wyman V. Leavitt, 71 Me. 227, 36 Am. Rep. 303. Thus, it has been held that, when bodily pain is caused, mental pain follows necessarily," and the sufferer is entitled to damages for the mental pain as well as for the bodily; Lawrence v. R. Ce., 29 Conn. 390; Fairchild V. Stage Co., 13 Cal. 699; Pennsylvania & O. Canal Co. v. Graham, 63 Pa. 290, 3 Am. Rep. 549; Ford v. Jones, 62 Barb. (N. Y.) 484; but damages for the mental suffering of one person, on account of physical injury to another, are too remote to be given by court or jury: 2 O. & P. 292. There is a material distinction between damages and injury. Injury is the wrongful act or tort whfch causes loss or harm to another. Damages are allowed as an indemnity to the person who suffers loss or harm from the injury. The word injury denotes the illegal act, the term damages means the sum recoverable as amends for the wrong; City of North Vernon v. Voegler, 103 Ind. 319, 2 N. E. 821. In Civil Law. A delict committed in contempt or outrage of any one, whereby his body, his dignity, or his reputation is maliciously injured. Voet, Com. ad Pand. 47, t. 10, n. 1. A real injury is inflicted by any act by which a person's honor or dignity is affected: as, striking one with a cane, or even aiming a blow without striking; spitting in one’s face; assuming a coat of arms, or any other mark of distinction proper to another, etc. The composing and publishing defamatory libels may be reckoned of this kind; Erskine, Pr. 4. 4. 45. A verbal injury, when directed against a private person, consists in the uttering contumelious words, which tend to injure his reputation by making him little or ridiculous. Where the offensive words are uttered in the heat of a dispute and spoken to the person’s face, the law does not presume any malicious intention in the utterer, whose resentment generally subsides with his passion; and yet even in that case the truth of the injurious words seldom absolves entirely from punishment. Where the injurious expressions have a tendency to blacken one’s moral reputation or fix some particular guilt upon him, and are deliberately repeated in different companies, or handed about in whispers to confidants, the crime then becomes slander, agreeably to the distinction of the Roman law; Dig. 16, § 12 de Injur.

In Louisiana, Slander, or libelous words. Civil Code La, art. 3501.